​Players threaten boycott of COPA Lagos over unpaid allowances

Some Sand Super Eagles players on Wednesday threatened to boycott the forthcoming 2017 COPA Lagos Beach Soccer Tournament if their outstanding allowances are not paid.

The News Agency of Nigeria gathered that 10 players and five officials are yet to be paid their match allowances from the 2017 World Cup which took place in the Bahamas in April.

The Captain of the team, Isiaka Olawale, told NAN that the players were not happy with the development, adding that the team’s endurance had been overstretched.

Olawale said: “As the captain of the team, I’m tired, my teammates keep calling asking me questions I obviously do not have answers to, and it’s so unfortunate.

“As it is now, I’m not sure that players are interested in participating in COPA Lagos as it is, we cannot keep giving our best and they keep treating us like we don’t matter.

“We keep giving our all for the national team, while our clubs suffer, that won’t continue; to whom much is given much is expected.

“I have been trying to calm my team players down, and that’s why we have kept quiet for this long since April, they keep treating us like dirt.”

The captain told NAN that he had even reached out to the authorities, but to no avail.

He said: “I have called the Minister of Sports, I called the President Nigeria Football Federation to call their attention to this, but still nothing has been done, in fact they have stopped picking my calls.

“The only person that keeps appealing to us is the Vice-Chairman, Seyi Akinwunmi, he picks my calls to assure us, but for how long am I going to keep calling.

“We love our country, but the love for our country will not pay our bills and take care of our families.”